Washington Post – August 11, 2013 By Sari Horwitz Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced Monday that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences. The new Justice Department policy is part of a comprehensive prison reform […]

Wall Street Journal – June 21, 2013 By NEIL KING JR. GAINESVILLE, Ga.—Weeks after his election as Georgia governor in 2010, Nathan Deal was pulled aside by a conservative state lawmaker with urgent business to discuss. Rep. Jay Neal, a small-town pastor, said he had the seeds of a plan to cut Georgia’s swelling prison […]

NeonTommy.com – July 7, 2013 Lauren Madow, Deputy Editor In 1995, Newt Gingrich was the poster boy for American conservatism, and conservatives were ready to get serious about reining in the nation’s soaring violent crime rates. One of his first actions as House Speaker was to put forward the “Taking Back Our Streets Act,” which […]

New York Times – June 9, 2013 By RICHARD A. VIGUERIE MANASSAS, Va. — CONSERVATIVES should recognize that the entire criminal justice system is another government spending program fraught with the issues that plague all government programs. Criminal justice should be subject to the same level of skepticism and scrutiny that we apply to any […]

May 24, 2013 – Unionville Times (West Chester, PA) Better guidelines needed to reduce number of prisoners, cut costs By Terence Farrell, Chester County Commissioner Local lockups, county jails, state prisons and federal correctional institutions are filled and overflowing across the United Sates. The cost of housing all of the offenders […]

The Atlantic – 6-20-12 By Anne Milgram In the movie Moneyball, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) learned that the key to building a successful baseball team on a shoestring budget was deceptively simple: When signing a hitter, the crucial statistic was his on-base percentage. This flew in the face of […]

San Antonio (TX) Express-News – 9-5-12 AUSTIN — Despite nationally noticed criminal justice reforms, Texas still has a fragmented system for releasing offenders into communities with thousands returning to prison after their release, according to an oversight report. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission — composed of state lawmakers and public members who periodically review state […]

The Final Call (Nation of Islam) – 9-6-12 Delaware, one of the first states to adopt mandatory minimum sentencing in the 1980s, is reeling from huge budget deficits and rethinking its policy of locking up non-violent drug offenders. According to budget documents, the state spends over $250 million a year to house 6,528 inmates. “Delaware’s […]

Indiana Public Media – 9-3-12 Most people imprisoned for low-level felonies have several prior convictions, according to a new study from the Center for Criminal Justice Research at Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute. The finding could change the state legislature’s effort to reform criminal sentencing. Governor Mitch Daniels tried to push through prison reform legislation […]

CorrectionalNews.com – 9-5-12 PIERRE, S.D. — Prison reform has been a background theme in our country for years, existing primarily as a philosophical debate about how our country should address crime and human failings. Our nation’s current financial woes are changing that dynamic, making prison reform seem less like a theoretical concept and more like […]